Chapter 1

When my boyfriend was a child, a maid sacrificed herself to save him from a fire. Afterward, his wealthy family adopted her daughter. Ever since, he tied himself to this adopted sister, giving her everything she demanded to repay that debt of gratitude.

Jealous of me, she framed and sabotaged me time and time again. And out of guilt, he always took her side.

Until one day, just to make her happy, he abandoned me in a freezing blizzard deep in the mountains.

Hunted by a hitman, I called him for help in desperation. Instead, I heard them laughing and clinking wine glasses over the phone.

"Stop faking your death," he scoffed. "And pick up some pizza on your way back." Then, he hung up.

He didn't know that the hitman hunting me down was hired by her for $50,000.

And he definitely didn't know that the "debt" he worshipped for years was built on a horrifying lie. During that fire years ago, the maid could have escaped. It was his precious adopted sister who deliberately locked the door, burning her own mother alive just so she could be taken in by his rich family.

At my birthday banquet, he planned to publicly humiliate me with a prank video, then step in to propose with a diamond ring like a "savior."

But when the giant screen lit up, it didn't show my humiliation. It broadcasted the ironclad proof of his sister hiring my killer and murdering her own mother!

Meanwhile, I was already sitting in first class on a flight to Paris.

Amidst the wailing police sirens, that was when he finally realized what a massive, unforgivable mistake he had made.

————

The snow beneath my feet was already halfway up my calves.

The blizzard whipped against my face so fiercely that I couldn't even open my eyes. Frost clung heavily to my hair.

Three hours ago, Julian's adopted sister, Mia, had suddenly fallen violently ill in our mid-mountain cabin. Her face had turned deadly pale as she laid there, gasping for air.

Since there was no cell service up at the cabin, Julian screamed at me in a panic, demanding I take our only SUV down to the highway station to call an ambulance.

But less than ten minutes into the drive, the vehicle broke down completely on a snowy downhill slope. The engine just wouldn't turn over no matter what I did.

To save Mia's life, I had no choice but to pull my coat tighter and trudge down the treacherous mountain on foot through the freezing storm.

My fingers were stiff from the cold, having lost almost all sensation.

I raised my phone. The faint glow of the screen lit up, and finally, a single weak bar of signal popped up in the top left corner.

I stopped immediately. Just as I was about to dial 911, the screen flashed. An incoming call abruptly interrupted me.

I quickly answered. Before I could even catch my breath, Julian's harsh reprimand smashed through the receiver: "Where the hell are you? Where is the ambulance? Do you have any idea that Mia is barely holding on?"

"The car broke down halfway," I answered, shivering, my teeth chattering uncontrollably. "I've been walking for almost three hours. I'm almost at the bottom of the mountain, I'm almost—"

Mid-sentence, I suddenly froze.

Something wasn't right.

Through the swirling snow, the realization hit me like a physical blow.

Before we headed up the mountain, Julian had explicitly stated that the cell towers in this area were undergoing power maintenance and there was absolutely no network. That was the entire reason I had to hike down to find help.

So how on earth was he calling me from the cabin right now?

"How... how are you calling me?"

Silence fell over the line for three agonizing seconds, followed by a sudden burst of laughter.

First came Mia's high-pitched giggles, and then Julian's uncontrollable laughter.

"Alright, Maya, the prank is over."

Julian's tone was incredibly relaxed, carrying the smug satisfaction of a winner.

"The power outage and no signal thing? We made it all up. I can't believe you actually fell for it."

I stood there, holding the phone to my ear as the freezing wind poured straight down my throat.

I had risked freezing to death, trudging through deep snow for three hours, all for a cruel game they set up just for fun.

Hearing my silence, Julian grew impatient, assuming I was throwing a tantrum. "Come on, don't be so petty. Since you're already almost at the highway, just stop by the convenience store and grab some pizzas on your way back. Mia says she's starving."

With that, the line went dead.

I stood numbly in the blinding snow, my entire body shaking.

Julian and I had been together since our college days, and our relationship had always been stable.

That is, until shortly after graduation, when I went home with him and met his adopted sister, Mia.

Mia's mother used to be a maid at Julian's family estate.

Years ago, a sudden fire broke out in the manor. To push a trapped Julian out of the flames, the maid was crushed by a collapsing beam and burned alive.

Because of this, Julian harbored deep, unending guilt toward Mia.

Growing up, he gave her whatever she wanted, entirely without boundaries.

She was used to Julian putting her first and couldn't stand seeing her beloved brother holding someone else in his heart. As a result, she targeted me time and time again.

A few months ago, Mia sneaked into my study and replaced the client presentation I had stayed up all night preparing with explicit pornographic cartoons, making me the laughingstock of the industry at the board meeting the next day.

She also secretly unlocked my phone and deleted crucial client files I had been tracking for over half a year.

The worst incident was when she poured nut powder—which I am severely allergic to—into my drink, causing me to spend an entire night in the ER fighting for my life.

Yet, every single time, Julian took her side.

"She lost the only family she had in the world when she was just a child. She's severely traumatized, and she's only doing this for attention," Julian would always use this excuse to gaslight me. "You're a mature adult. Why are you making such a big deal out of a little girl's pranks?"

This mountain trip was supposed to be a romantic Christmas getaway just for the two of us, planned months in advance.

But the day before we left, Mia forcefully shoved her way into our plans.

And now, she had orchestrated this fake illness stunt, leaving me stranded in a lethal blizzard.

What was worse, Julian had completely played along just to make her happy.

I closed my eyes in bitter resignation.

At that very second, a sharp, piercing whistle tore through the frigid air right next to my ear.

Thwack—

A heavy black steel crossbow bolt flew inches past my cheek, burying itself with a violent thud into the trunk of a pine tree behind me. Bark splintered in all directions.

My eyes snapped open as I whipped my head toward the depths of the snowy woods.

A man dressed in dark winter hunting gear and a ski mask was advancing toward me, a large, lethal crossbow leveled in his hands.

Someone was trying to kill me.

Pure survival instinct took over, driving me to run.

Through knee-deep snow, I fought desperately to move forward, diving behind a fallen, hollowed-out tree trunk. Pressing myself flat into the freezing snow, I dialed Julian’s number again with trembling hands.

It rang for what felt like an eternity before he finally answered.

"Maya, did you get the pizzas?"

Julian's tone was careless, even slightly annoyed at the interruption.

Burying my face into the snow, I kept my voice lowered to a frantic whisper. "Someone is hunting me in the woods! They have weapons!"

There was a brief moment of silence on the other end, followed by Mia’s drawn-out, mocking sneer. "Oh my god, Julian, she is so pathetic. Just because we pulled a prank on her, she’s making up this ridiculous lie to get back at us. So childish."

"Shut up! Mia, shut the hell up!" I screamed frantically into the microphone. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the man with the crossbow stepping past the pine tree, closing in on my hiding spot.

Julian’s voice instantly dropped to a freezing register. "That's enough, Maya. Who gave you the right to speak to Mia like that? Stop this stupid prank and go buy the pizzas. How long are you going to throw this tantrum? When you figure it out, walk back on your own."

Click. The call was brutally disconnected.

The crunching of footsteps in the snow was getting dangerously close. Realizing Julian had completely abandoned me, I knew I could only depend on myself. I scrambled up and ran, frantically dialing 911 on the move, but my phone had lost signal again.

I gritted my teeth, scrambling toward a nearby slope to keep running.

Right at that moment, another bolt sliced through the howling wind.

The razor-sharp arrowhead pierced cleanly through my left shoulder.

The sheer kinetic force of the impact swept my feet right out from under me, throwing me backward.

I was already standing on the edge of a steep decline. My boots slipped on the ice, and I completely lost my balance.

I tumbled down the snowy embankment into the terrifying void below, and everything faded to black.